I had to think my way around to it, but yeah, Chess is a conversation. It's a conversation that plays out in the medium of the board and pieces. Also a game that plays out in that medium.

Indie RPG design is a long, slow conversation between designers that plays out in the medium of published games. Also, conceivably a game.

So, yes!

So when it comes to RPG design, I'm trying to say somehow that its medium, conversation, like the medium of the chessboard and the medium of published games, poses challenges for the designer. There are things that you want to do in your game that its medium makes difficult or impossible, and things you don't want to do in your game that its medium makes too easy.

Those awkward pauses and dead spaces in the game you're playtesting, Vincent, you should remember this, they're awkward pauses and dead spaces in a conversation. The design solution to them is conversational.

This makes VB go "Or rather, not THE solution, but..."...But there IS a conversational design solution to them. There might be other solutions too.